Chairman's News - TrustNews Mar 2003
The City Council's Draft Planning Brief for Friarsgate is now available for comment. It has already been discussed by the Trust's working party which was established to consider the whole project and we have arranged a meeting for all members of the Trust to discuss the draft Brief. This will be held in the Walton Room in the Guildhall on Thursday 3rd April at 6.30 p.m. and addressed by Steve Bee, the Director of Development Services for the City Council. It will be remembered that Mike Capocci, director of Thornfield (the nominated developers) addressed our AGM last November about the development. The Trust has been asked by him to nominate a member of our Council to take part in the process of selecting the Master Planner whose role is set out in the Draft Planning Brief. This process will start soon. All members are urged to obtain a copy (only about 20 pages) from the City offices or from their website [ http:// www.winchester.gov.uk ] and read it before attending the meeting, joining in the discussion and giving your views on the Brief. It is not a document which delivers full detail as to what will happen, but it provides overall guidelines for the Master Planner.
The working group considers the following points to be of great importance as part of their initial reaction to the Brief:
- The sites for consideration by the Master Planner should also include: Cossack Lane Car Park The role of St. George's Street (especially in the traffic system). The frontage of the Broadway.
- The plans used in the Brief are too rigid, too restrictive and imprecise in their use of language. For example the word "spoke" is used when a "hub" is described.
- Parts of the document are too prescriptive at this stage of the planning process when the Master Planner should be encouraged to use his imagination and expertise to the full.
- There should be further public consultation once the Master Planner has produced his Plan for the development with the scheme put forward by him available for public consultation.
- Every effort should be made to preserve and develop the Woolstaplers Hall (at present Marks & Spencer's warehouse) for public use. Similarly the Kings Walk antique market should not be written off before its use and possible retention are considered by the Master Planner.
There were further more detailed comments made by the working group. These will form part of the formal response by the Trust to the City Council incorporating comments made by
members at the meeting on April 3rd.